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Think Your Indexing Work is Lost?  Think Again!

9/21/2013

 
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By Katie Gale.  Maybe you’ve experienced it—that computer-glitch moment of horror! That heart-wrenching instant when you’re about to finish a long indexing batch in which you meticulously studied the curves of each letter until your eyesight started to blur, and then it happens—your computer decides to quit! And all before your indexing program gave you the chance to hit Save or Submit.

All of that work—lost? You hold your breath while the computer starts back up again. You open the indexing program and see your batch on your My Work list showing the progress at 95 percent complete. Hallelujah!

Life happens. FamilySearch knows that. FamilySearch also knows how important your time and efforts are. Whether your computer mysteriously quits, you lose power, your kids decide it’s time for you to stop indexing and your batch expires, you decide to return a batch at only 50 percent complete, or an arbitrator changes the name that you spent 20 minutes deciphering, FamilySearch strives to protect your work.

While indexing, your work automatically saves as you index record after record. As long as you’re working while online, your work gets saved to the FamilySearch servers and can be accessed from any computer. If you return a partially-completed batch or it expires, your work goes with it, on to the next indexer.

As for the arbitrators making changes, indexing values from both indexers and the arbitrator are preserved in the FamilySearch database. At some future date, if needed, all three could be published side-by-side and made searchable. Your indexing values might appear to be lost for a time, but they are not forgotten.

While not completely perfect,we continue to make improvements to the indexing program to protect your graciously-donated time and effort. No one should experience that heart-wrenching moment when you feel your efforts are lost. So let the indexing continue! And know that FamilySearch is working to protect your quality indexing work.


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